Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844 review:
Better graphics, budget laptop

This Acer covers its bases on ports and connections. There's an SD card slot, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. You also get an Ethernet port, HDMI, USB 2 and 3, and -- why not? -- VGA. What looks like a DVD drive door on the right side appears glued shut, a vestigial non-feature. On the left side, vents push out some heat when the Aspire starts getting taxed.

Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844

Video

HDMI, VGA

Audio

Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks

Data

1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, SD card reader

Networking

Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Optical drive

None

Battery life: Passable

Battery life on our tests held up for 4 hours 18 minutes, a completely mediocre and unimpressive result. I'd expect six hours or more. But, for a budget laptop, it's not bad...unless you consider something like the Asus Transformer Book T100, which is a smaller, less powerful laptop, but gets far better battery life. And, it costs less (and has touch).

Good value, unimpressive design

This Acer is fine for a basic starter laptop. But don't expect more. If you really care about graphics on a laptop, spend up a bit. If you want a completely bare-bones laptop, spend down. I wouldn't straddle the line. Acer's addition of Nvidia graphics into this laptop just amounts to a tease. I'd rather have a better-feeling computer that did a little less than cram more performance into a body and screen that make it awfully hard to appreciate.

About The Author

Scott Stein is a senior editor covering iOS and laptop reviews, mobile computing, video games, and tech culture. He has previously written for both mainstream and technology enthusiast publications including Wired, Esquire.com, Men's Journal, and Maxim, and regularly appears on TV and radio talking tech trends.